John MacDonald: If you're over 50, be weary of National's plan

Anyone over the age of 50 should be very wary of this plan National has to reduce benefit payments for people on the Jobseeker benefit longer than two years.

I’ll tell you why. But first, here’s what it wants to do to save taxpayers $572 million over four years.

A single person receiving the Jobseeker benefit would get $48 less per week after more than two years. A couple both receiving it who don’t have kids would get $82 less. While a couple with kids would get $24 less. And a sole parent on Jobseeker would also have their benefit cut by $24 a week.

National’s view is that the Jobseeker benefit is there to provide temporary support for people. That it’s a backstop.

Which, broadly, is how I see it too. I have never been on the dole or the Jobseeker benefit. And, when I lost my job at the start of Covid, signing up never actually occurred to me. I just got on with setting myself up as a sole trader to get some money in the door. And I went from there.

But that’s me. Everyone approaches things differently. And not everyone has the confidence or the skills or the wherewithal to create something themselves.

That’s not a criticism of anyone. It’s just a fact.

National, though, sees everyone being the same and having the same opportunities to find work.

Here’s how leader Christopher Luxon put it: “I am not happy to have people sitting out there on welfare when there's a massive opportunity to connect them to work. That is what we want to do.”

Which all sounds great. But here’s the kicker. Bringing me back to my warning that anyone over the age of 50 should be very wary of this idea.

Those of us over 50, like I am, know that if we find ourselves out of work, it’s going to take us way longer to find a job than someone younger than 50.

I’ll give you an example.

Sue’s her name. She has decades of experience in law and engineering.

At 63, she was out of work and putting in half a dozen job applications every day for six months, with no success. And she’s convinced it was because of her age.

In fact, she says: "I got one response. She phoned me up from Australia and asked me over the phone: 'I need to verify your age.' And when she found out what age I was, that was it."

That’s the brutal truth. And I can imagine two years disappearing very quickly for someone over 50 trying to get back into the workforce.

Not to mention someone over 60.

Like Yvonne, who has removed anything in her CV that might give away her age.

She says: “As soon as you start getting into your 50s, even in your late 40s, people start looking at you and wonder why you haven't become a manager.”

And this is why this policy of National’s has unintended consequences written all over it.

I get what its social development spokesperson, Louise Upston, means when she says the Jobseeker Benefit is supposed to provide temporary support for people.

But this idea that anything longer than two years isn’t temporary totally ignores reality. Especially for anyone over the age of 50.

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